The only thing I would suggest is upgrading to phpbb3, well ideally vBulletin but I can understand not wanting to spend money on such a professional forum script right now, and adding a quick reply. If its one thing I hate its having to hit reply to post in a topic. Theres 2 or 3 stable good quality quick reply mods available for phpbb2, and I assume for phpbb3 as well given phpbb3 has been gold for over a year I believe.